I don't know, I could be wrong, but a trigger isn't just something that upsets you. I'm actually getting irritated by people overusing the word trigger just to describe having any emotion about anything. A trigger, to my knowledge, is actually referring to some kind of stimuli that provokes an aspect of your disorder. So my flashbacks are triggered by something. My panic attacks are triggered by something. But my annoyance with someone is just being annoyed by someone, it's not the same as a trigger. I mean, a trigger refers to the lever you pull on a gun to fire a bullet. Like the train leaving the station. A panic attack, a flash back, a mania episode, a delusion, those are trains leaving the station, bullets leaving the gun. Annoyance, irritation, not bullets, not trains.

I'm just saying, I hear a lot of people refer to triggers when they're not really triggered, they're just feeling an emotion.

To answer your question: since you know you're being triggered, the question is, what are you being triggered to? If it's a flashback, then knowing what the trigger is helps take away it's power. But a flashback, typically you will do exercises to ground yourself into reality. With a panic attack, when triggered, you will do things to slow your breathing and get your body to relax down from the fight or flight effect. I don't have mania or delusions, so I am not sure how they deal with those when triggered.

Today I was triggered into a full blown panic attack by an email about my lawsuit. I handed the problem off to my lawyer, acknowledged that it was a triggering situation, then worked to slow my breathing, put on some music to distract myself, then try to coerce my mind into focusing on something else.

Honestly, if you find that you have something that is triggering you into having a disordered behavior, it's something to work with a therapist on to change. CBT helps, I hear DBT also helps.

Sorry about my beginning rant, had to get that off my chest.

Seesaw